Congrats on discovering corn bread, it's seriously tasty stuff. It's also pretty easy to make, and there are many different variants out there. Most recipe sites will have several recipes, and it's a popular enough thing that you should see reviews and ratings that will help steer you in directions of recipes that might be worth trying. When I'm scouting new (to me) recipes online, I scan through 2 or 3 that look interesting or seem highly rated, and read each. As I see similarities and common steps between the recipes, I'm able to decide either which one to try or which direction I want to head if I'm making my own thing. Good luck!

Thanks Trilo, however it isn't that easy for me, for this one - i am all over internet searching for most things BUT when you have only eaten something once before -and at burning man after a few beers (Nevada pale i have recently found out, is quite high in alcohol:)) it is very difficult to decipher the recipes, stars or no stars. I was hoping that someone might have "grandma's great recipe" or "fool proof corn bread for beginners" - Or more importantly a discussion on what constitutes real cornbread to have with Chilli con cane.(considering i took tortillas to the chilli cook off, as i didn't know what cornbread was - i do need a lot of extra education on this one!)

a lot look sweet - some have baking soda, some not - I don't have a skillet...so this is what i think i'll settle on this one as it comes with an easy rating, no sugar & uses a baking dish!

Hi Bumble, we met when you where guarding the door at the meet n greet- I was the one stupified with over stimulation.That's pretty close to the recipe I use except I'll add a couple tablespoons of sugar or some honey. If you don't have buttermilk regular milk will sub. This is about right for an 8"x8" glass or metal cake pan. You can double the recipe for a larger pan and it works ok. Cornbread is very forgiving. Honey on top is good so is bacon grease. 400 degrees F for about 25 minutes or a little less. 204 degrees C

Eric wrote:add 1/4 sugar to the recipe, it adds just the fainest sweetness to the recipe you have above (that's the way The Boyfriend makes it)

Eric 'Ol Bean, everyone South of the Mason-Dixon line just let out a collective gasp. One does not simply add sugar to proper corn bread. That, would be a sacrilidge of the highest order.

One uses molassas. The darker, the better.

Please take a moment to educate He-Who-Uses-Sugar-Inappropriately in this matter. Remember: The South shall rise again, and when they do, the sugary-cornbread makers who blastpheme 300 years of Dixie culinary perfection will be the first ones up against the wall!

(Seriously, have him try it. Crazy goobers down here got this one right!)

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For every Southern cook who swears to never use sugar there are two who lie and sneak it in. Just FYI. Sugar helps to firm the crumb, as does the wheat flour. You can get away with less flour if you cook it in a hot skillet, as the crust will help stabilize it. For sugar I prefer to use honey, as that helps to preserve the just-baked taste for several hours, and I think improves the crumb.

Baking soda is less likely to destablize your crumb than baking powder, which is double-acting, but you need to add the baking soda at just about the last stir and bake immediately for best results.

Competently baked cornbread can be spread with butter and eaten with the fingers, without falling to bits.

"You can be whoever you want to be, and sometimes people laugh and sometimes they clap, and mostly and beautifully they don't really care."

Go to the library immediately and check out "The Cornbread Gospels" by Crescent (not her birth name) Dragonwagon. It's the definite book on cornbread, packed with history, scholarship, and recipes.

Make as many cornbread variations as call to you. Host potlucks and get invited to potlucks. Bring cornbread to potlucks until people say, "Oh my God, here comes Bumble carting out another damn cornbread."

When you can make a cornbread without using a recipe, then, grasshopper, will you truly know cornbread.

My favourite recipe has whole corn, chopped chilies and sharp cheddar added...the trick is to be sure it's baked all the way through. (A toothpick poked in the middle should come out dry, when it's done.)

Polenta is heavier than corn meal, much more like corn grits. At least in the US. You can make cornbread with it, but I'd be concerned with the texture. But if it tastes good, go for it. I do cook mine in a skillet, but you can put a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of your baking dish. Is it glass or metal? Dark metal? That all changes the baking time a little.

Can you shop on Amazon? They carry several brands of good yellow corn meal.

We always made it without sugar growing up. Some of my fondest memories are of sitting with my grandfather, eating leftover cornbread in milk as dessert.

Praises be unto the blue wire, where forth all sarcasm may emit and to which may all sarcasm return... And though red wire be your brother in its eternal mockery, let us not forget that you two be different and unequal in your awesomeness.

I haven't tried to make Junglesmack's momma's recipe, so until that day, my favorite recipe from scratch is on the side of a cornmeal box at home--only you replace the white sugar with brown sugar (a variant on using molasses, of course). So delicious. I will never make cornbread with white sugar again.

I'll look for my recipe when I get home.

I'll also have to try that tip of preheating the pan with bacon grease in it. I grease the pan, obviously, but I've never used bacon grease, or heated the pan first.

*** 2016 Survival Guide ***"I must've lost it when I was twerking at the trash fence." -- BBadger

I haven't tried to make Junglesmack's momma's recipe, so until that day, my favorite recipe from scratch is on the side of a cornmeal box at home--only you replace the white sugar with brown sugar (a variant on using molasses, of course). So delicious. I will never make cornbread with white sugar again.

I'll look for my recipe when I get home.

I'll also have to try that tip of preheating the pan with bacon grease in it. I grease the pan, obviously, but I've never used bacon grease, or heated the pan first.

This is pretty close to the recipe I like. I stick with the white sugar and add about 2 tsp of anise seed. Just guessing on the anise seed, because I just dump it into the mix right out of the spice bottle.

I made cornbread once from Polenta... I ground it a bit finer in a coffee grinder. I was overseas, homesick, and the taste was purely "home." I think I used my mother's old Joy of Cooking recipe for that. I put sugar in. It's a real wet dough, pours almost like a cake, don't stir it much. I usually just use the recipe on the back of the cornmeal box. I made it once with blueberries, and it came out a bit well, green, but it was good. I like that it's really a stealth kind of cake, with honey and butter, but we get to call it bread. I've always wondered what the "corn dodgers" that Rooster Cogburn extolls in True Grit, are.

Pictures or it didn't happen GreycoyoteI a recovering swagaholic I have to resist my grabby nature VultureChowThose aren't buttermilk biscuits I'm lying on SavannahWe're out there to play like adults with no adult supervision CaptG

Basically the same thing as a johnnycake - it's a skillet biscuit. I worked at a dude-ranch in Wyoming in 80/81, and we had an old grizzled ranch-hand (of course) and his wife Doris (I forgot his name), and they used to make these out by the buffalo paddock over an open fire for the tourists. Doris also made the most sinful chicken & dumplings - her dumplings were perfect all the way through, yet the size of a mans fist. Drooooooooooooool.

It's a camping trip in the desert, not the redemption of the fallen world - Cryptofishist

Basically the same thing as a johnnycake - it's a skillet biscuit. I worked at a dude-ranch in Wyoming in 80/81, and we had an old grizzled ranch-hand (of course) and his wife Doris (I forgot his name), and they used to make these out by the buffalo paddock over an open fire for the tourists. Doris also made the most sinful chicken & dumplings - her dumplings were perfect all the way through, yet the size of a mans fist. Drooooooooooooool.

I've always wondered the same thing, Elorrum!! I'd love to one day have a pocket full, and share one with you! I have the same coat the Duke wears in that movie. And I'm adept and drunkenness and falling off a horse to pick a camp spot.

tummler wrote:Make as many cornbread variations as call to you. Host potlucks and get invited to potlucks. Bring cornbread to potlucks until people say, "Oh my God, here comes Bumble carting out another damn cornbread."

When you can make a cornbread without using a recipe, then, grasshopper, will you truly know cornbread.

i think i will do this - with all this advice!

Just had it this morning reheated with honey - i defiantly will try to get a finer corn meal i think.

Savannah, i didn't even think to search eplaya first - that will learn me!!